The Trump administration will drop its $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that was widely criticized as a payout for the president’s allies, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a congressional hearing Tuesday.
“We’re not moving forward with the fund, period,” said Blanche in remarks before the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the Department of Justice.
Republican blowback from the announcement of the fund has stalled movement on an immigration enforcement bill in the Senate, where GOP leaders feared their members would vote on Democratic amendments to nix or put guardrails on the account. Separately, a judge late last week paused the administration’s ability to administer the fund, prompting DOJ to release a statement saying it would follow the court’s orders.
But Republican senators have been hopeful Blanche would make clear in his testimony that the administration would abandon this effort altogether, which could clear the way for Congress to vote on the party-line package with fewer political headaches.
Still, Blanche defended the fund’s purpose Tuesday.
“The reasons for the fund — it’s something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them,” he said. “The reasons for the fund … remain as important as [they] were before.”
